Behind The Mic With Joe Mathieu: A Rare Compromise In Congress

BOSTON (CBS) – You may want to circle this week on the calendar because we’re not very used to this.

You know. The whole compromise thing.

Cats and dogs living together. Mass hysteria.

Well it actually happened. A deal struck between a conservative and a liberal to keep the government funded for two years. And by that I mean no shutdown next month.

The House will likely vote on the deal Thursday and it’s expected to pass.

Now in case you forgot how this works, you don’t get everything you want in a compromise. Sometimes you get things you don’t want. And indeed this one is no exception.

Arguably the biggest item missing from this deal is an extension of long-term unemployment benefits. They will expire at the end of the month, cutting-off some 1.3 million people. Democrats fought for the extension. Republicans didn’t want it. And it’s gone for now.

Then there’s the Sequester – the automatic budget cuts that took effect last year. The second round hits early next year and this deal cuts it in half.

But, of course, nothing comes cheap in Washington and the lower budget cuts will be made up in other ways.

Like when you buy an airline ticket.

It may seem random, but this deal more than doubles the security fee for each airline ticket. That’s expected to raise more than $13 billion over the next decade. There will likely be other creative fees in here by the time this is done.

This is how the sausage is made. It’s never pretty.

But it’s been so long I’m just glad to see the factory back up and running.